Academic Showcase

Conduct Research With An Expert Professor & Win Money

Our annual President’s Academic Showcase of Undergraduate Research allows you the opportunity to do exactly that. This cash-reward competition offers prizes of up to $1500 for graduate-level research projects conducted by our undergraduates in every discipline.

So no matter your major, you will have the chance to work one-on-one with an expert faculty mentor to produce a scholarly paper, give an oral presentation to a group of judges, and present your work on the topic of your choosing to the Concordia community.

Grace Chong ’15 and Rafael Ramos ’15 recently took first-place honors at the Showcase for their genetic research aimed at fighting lung cancer. They worked under the guidance of faculty mentors Dr. Lindsay Kane-Barnese and Dr. John Kenney. “To help a student relate what she’s learning in class to benefit society and apply concepts to real problems has been rewarding,” says Dr. Kane-Barnese. Equally rewarding for Grace has been the recognition she’s received from the National Institute of Health (NIH). “We’re in the process of applying for an NIH grant,” Grace says. “The first round is for a few hundred thousand dollars, and we passed that. If we win this grant, worth $1.5 million, it’s going to be very good for the next generation of students.” Grace is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology at the University of Southern California with a full-ride fellowship.

To find out more:

Concordia is a U.S. News Top Tier Regional University and has been named by The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the fastest growing private nonprofit master's institutions. CUI enrolls over 4,000 students.